Someone Else Will Get It

Written By Bart Berkey | Founder of Most People Don't

EVERYBODY STEPPED OVER IT

From across the room, I saw part of an exhibit tip over and land on the floor.

Instead of getting up to fix it, I turned to the person sitting next to me, and suggested we try a little experiment.

"Let's stay in our seats and simply watch what happens."

We saw someone walk up to it, look down, then step over it.

Then the next person did the same thing, moving around it the way you might move around a puddle, without breaking stride and without bending down.

Yes, everyone at tradeshows are busy and have somewhere to be.

I suspect Most People were thinking the same quiet thought, "someone else will get it."

Then one woman stopped.

She bent down, picked it up, set it back where it belonged, and kept walking as though nothing unusual had happened.

That would have been a pretty good ending, but I had given a gratitude stone to the woman sitting next to me.

I travel with them and give them to people who deserve to be noticed, and she happened to have received two from me that day.

After she saw the woman pick up the fallen sign, she ran over to her, looked her in the eye, thanked her for what she had just done, and placed the stone in her hand.

The woman was overjoyed and looked in my direction... and smiled, like she was just discovered, similar to the social experiment clips on TikTok and YouTube that have hidden cameras and find someone doing something good.

She might not remember everyone she met that day, but she is going to remember the one person who noticed what she did and made her feel like it mattered. (Notice, Anticipate, & Over-Deliver). 

TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS ON THE FLOOR

It reminded me of the time I presented at a university.

I arrived early and placed two one-hundred-dollar bills on the auditorium floor, one on each side of the room, before any of the students walked in.

The money was actually a movie prop. The hundred-dollar bills look completely realistic from a few feet away.

Before class even started, one student found the first bill, walked straight up to me, and handed it over.

“This was on the ground,” the student said.

“Could you make an announcement in case someone lost it?”

Partway through my presentation, I watched another student pick up the second bill and slide it into his pocket.

A little later, I mentioned that I often hide prop money around the room when I speak.

Within seconds he reached into his pocket and, as quietly as he possibly could, tossed the bill back into the aisle, hoping nobody had noticed.

I noticed.

SOMEONE ELSE WILL GET IT

The exhibit and the hundred-dollar bill are the same test coming from opposite directions.

One asks whether you'll "Do" something that isn't your job, and the other asks whether you'll "Do" something, even if it doesn't benefit you.

Both situations test your character when you believe nobody is keeping score.

At work, the thing on the floor looks like the meeting that ends without anyone owning the follow-up, the new hire eating lunch alone again, or the client email sitting in a shared inbox because nobody is sure whose it is.

We see it, we tell ourselves "someone else will get it", and we keep walking.

See Something, Do Something.

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Two Things to Try This Week:

1. Pick it up before noon. Name one thing lying on the floor in your world right now and take care of it before lunch, without announcing that you did.
2. Be the "Person Who Does". In your next team meeting, name one person who picked something up that nobody asked them to, because the people who quietly take care of things are the first to stop when nobody notices.

Most People Don't return the money they find on the floor.

Most People Don't pick up the exhibit that falls right in front of them.

Most People Don't turn in the lost wallet.

Most People Don't bend down for the piece of trash in the hallway, even when it would be respectful and helpful and not nearly as unpleasant as we tell ourselves it will be.

What has been lying on the floor in your world long enough that you've stopped seeing it?

Most People Don't... But YOU Do!

Bart